Distortion Productions is proud to present the release of SPÄNK, the brand new solo record from the legendary En Esch. Over the years, En Esch had been a part of many major super groups in the industrial genre including KMFDM, Pigface and his own band Slick Idiot. His larger than life persona has made his live performances a very memorable experience for fans worldwide.

Spank is the long awaited follow up to his previous solo record, Cheesy (1993). Esch enlisted the talents from different corners of electronic music for this album. Guest appearances by Tim Skold (KMFDM, Marilyn Manson, Skold), Guenter Schulz (Ex KMFDM, Slick Idiot), Jim Marcus (Die Warzau, Go Fight), More Machine Than Man, Trixy Reiss (Crystal Method) and many more give this album a varied and refreshing style. Any En Esch fan will find this album as an added jewel to their collection. We assure you, he is just getting started! 

Sony Pictures Releasing has given us a first peep from the new Bond. Don't miss it: from 7th November in all theatres.

Arrow Video is delighted to announce the details of its forthcoming May 2015 titles. Amongst the exciting roster of releases scheduled for May, the eagerly anticipated 2K restoration of The Long Good Friday will be the first to debut on 4th May 2015, as both a DVD and Blu-ray combo and as part of a deluxe 6-disc box-set featuring exclusive content and both Bob Hoskins films, The Long Good Friday and Mona Lisa, also receiving a brand new 2K restoration.

Also set for release in May is the Burt Lancaster 1964 classic The Train on the Arrow Academy label, The 1969 Japanese yakuza flick Retaliation, Brian Yuzna’s fantastically subversive Society and a new restoration of Video Nasty, Island of Death.

May 2015 titles

· The Long Good Friday (Arrow Video) Limited Edition SteelBook Dual Format Blu-ray & DVD

· The Long Good Friday + Mona Lisa (Arrow Video) Limited Edition Dual Format Blu-ray & DVD

· The Train (Arrow Academy) Blu-ray

· Retaliation (Arrow Video) Limited Edition Dual Format Blu-ray & DVD

· Society (Arrow Video) Dual Format Blu-ray & DVD

· Island of Death (Arrow Video) Dual Format Blu-ray & DVD

Briqueville is a band that wraps itself in mystery, smoke curtains, black robes and golden masks! It seems to be an association of musicians from different Belgian prog rock bands, but no one knows exactly who is hidden behind the mysterious capes and masks. Their postmetal has already been noted as a support act of Amen Ra. They describe their sound as "the heartbeat of a dying man, trapped in a storm" and that description summarizes quite well the jet-black atmosphere of their music together. On November 7, their debut will be realeased & on the 20th of February, they will play @ the Cactus Muziekcentrum (Bruges) !

Akte I.b from briqueville on Vimeo.

www.cactusmusic.be/Concerts/Detail.aspx?guid=b8f89b63-5097-4263-8db0-f4596e7b8e5d

Arrow Video is delighted to announce release of John Frankenheimer’s 1962 Cold War suspense thriller The Manchurian Candidate. Starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh and Angela Lansbury in her Oscar-nominated role, this newly released Blu-ray and DVD will be available to own from 23rd February 2015. One of the all-time classic paranoid conspiracy thrillers (which developed a conspiracy theory of its own when it became very hard to see between the Kennedy assassination of 1963 and its reissue twenty-five years later), it remains remarkably fresh today, a tribute to just how astute Frankenheimer and source novelist Richard Condon were in distilling age-old fears about foreign invasion and mind control into a heart-poundingly thrilling drama.

The new edition boasts a bumper crop of bonus features such as an audio commentary with director John Frankenheimer, alongside the 2003 hour-long documentary, The Directors, focusing on Frankenheimer, plus an appreciation by William Friedkin (director of The Exorcist) who came from the same hectic live-TV background as Frankenheimer. Packaged together with this, the extra features also include interviews with Frankenheimer, Frank Sinatra, George Axelrod and Angela Lansbury.

The reversible sleeve will showcase both the original and the newly commissioned artwork by Jay Shaw alongside a collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film looking into the cultural/political context and actual CIA mind control experiments, illustrated with original archive stills and posters.

Synopsis

After saving the lives of his platoon during the Korean War, Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) is hailed as a bona fide American hero. This couldn’t have come at a better time for his mother (Angela Lansbury) who is hell-bent on boosting the career of his stepfather, a senator straight from the McCarthyite wing of the US political spectrum with designs on the Presidency.

So far so familiar – but why does Shaw’s former captain (Frank Sinatra) have recurring nightmares that suggest that his distinguished comrade-in-arms might not be all that he seems?

Based on the memorably paranoid bestseller by Richard Condon (Prizzi’s Honor), this is one of the greatest of all Cold War suspense thrillers, not least for its alarmingly original take on the notion of “the enemy within”. Angela Lansbury won multiple awards and an Oscar nomination for her performance as one of the most monstrous mothers in screen history, but perhaps the most unnerving thing about the film is the way that its political satire remains so perfectly on target more than half a century later.

Special Features

· High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation of the main feature, transferred from original elements by MGM

· Uncompressed 1.0 mono PCM soundtrack

· Optional English SDH subtitles

· Audio commentary by director John Frankenheimer

· The Directors: John Frankenheimer, an hour-long portrait from 2003, including interviews with Frankenheimer, Kirk Douglas, Samuel L. Jackson, Roy Scheider, Rod Steiger and many others

· Interview with John Frankenheimer, Frank Sinatra and screenwriter George Axelrod from the film’s 1988 revival

· Queen of Diamonds: an interview with Angela Lansbury

· A Little Solitaire: an appreciation of the film by director William Friedkin (The Exorcist)

· Theatrical trailer

· Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jay Shaw

· Collector’s booklet containing new writing by Peter Knight (Conspiracy Culture) and Neil Sanders (Your Thoughts Are Not Your Own), illustrated with original production stills